We love heading to New York each May to attend ICFF; this show always reflects diversity of products from furniture to materials, from residential to commercial. And how exciting this year to see our design partner, Justin Champaign of Most Modest, recognized at ICFF as a finalist for the NYCxDesign award in soft seating with our Gimbal Rocker!

With 700+ exhibitors from more than 30 countries, ICFF provides our team a broad and insightful view of what will impact the design world this year. If I had to narrow it down, there were two categories we were most excited about:

Accessories:

Though many things stood out at ICFF this year, one of the most interesting trends we spotted were in the accessory category. Our team discussed the fact that as we see more corporate spaces resembling hosting and hospitality environments, there are many opportunities to accessorize—and let’s face it, it is so much more fun to incorporate really unique objects. One example were polypropylene baskets—a playful touch and you could literally put them anywhere and everywhere! One of the favorite things our team spotted were SUGO rugs. Made in Portugal from cork, these colorful rugs gave our team all sorts of inspiration imagining any number of Hightower designs placed on them!

Wood Chairs:

This year, we spotted many new designs for wood chairs from Brazil to Scandinavia. The craftsmanship was impressive; worth noting the amount of time it takes to truly make covetable wood goods. Our team especially loved the blending of materials and color, light and bright details as well as dark and moody. In fact, ICFF in general was a broad offering of these very different vibes this year.

While at ICFF, we celebrated Justin and the nomination of the Gimbal Rocker at an event hosted by our NYC sales reps miconcepts at their Manhattan showroom. A fun evening with an incredible turnout and strong support for our recently launched Spring/Summer ‘18 collection. ICFF 2018 had a very high energy and optimistic mood overall, which makes us even more excited to get to NeoCon! What were your favorite, spotted trends at ICFF this year? Let us know. Drop us a line here anytime.